What Does it Mean When You See the Secured By Design Logo on a Product?

Secured by Design is the UK police’s own accreditation scheme which endorses any home improvement product that has been successfully and independently tested to a specific set of security standards. Its aim is to encourage buyers to choose products for their homes which have been designed with crime prevention in mind. It’s been widely promoted over the years to both commercial developers and homeowners and can even help to save on home insurance premiums.

For windows and doorsets, the standard required for Secured by Design accreditation is BS: PAS24 2016. This is actually a series of tests, which all have to be carried out in UK approved independent test centres, and which come as close as possible to simulating the kind of attack that would be carried out by a burglar or opportunist thief. 

For doors, the PAS24 test includes things like: using mole grips, a torque bar and a variety of screwdrivers to remove the handle and try to break the cylinder inside, screwing into the cylinder itself to see if it can be pulled out, using chisels and craft knives to try to cut a hole in the door to access the cylinder, and using a 30kg sandbag and a 50kg steel ram to apply repeated pushes and pulls to the corners and interlock of the door to try to force it open. 

For windows, it’s using tools like paint scrapers, chisels and craft knives to try to remove the glazing from the outside, using small headed screwdrivers to see if any of the fixings on the window can be manipulated in any way, and mimicking the effect of a crowbar being applied repeatedly to the locking points and corners of the window to see if it can be forced open.

Whoever is carrying out the tests must use a pre-approved set of tools and work for a specific length of time on each element, which makes sure there is consistency across all the UK testing houses when it comes to products which pass or fail. 

Once a product does pass however, it can be submitted for SBD accreditation, as long as the company manufacturing it, like AluK, is a member of the scheme. The product then has to be regularly retested in order to maintain the accreditation and the factory manufacturing it has to be inspected as well, providing an extra layer of reassurance for buyers.

So what it means for homeowners is that, when you see the Secured by Design logo, you really can relax knowing that the product offers the very highest levels of protection for your home and has been rigorously tested to prove it.